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A Bard’s Lament (Part 10: Final!)

Part 10 (Final)

“Ha!” boomed Caskhell. “Here’s the bard!”

Ella froze on the threshold. Sackle withdrew his sword, apparently oblivious to the bangs and screams from outside, his face half-hidden in shadow and Ella in his sights with a piercing glare. Lucinda panted weakly in Caskhell’s grip.

“Let her go.” Ella thundered. She sounded braver than she felt. “It’s me you want.”

“Was this you?” Sackle gestured to the noise from the street. “Stealing nobles’ horses? Allowing Elves to run amok? Killing a guardsman?”

“I warned you,” said Caskhell, a mad gleam in his eyes. “I told you that you would pay.”

And before Ella could do anything, before she could even move, there was a flash of silver. By the time the scream had erupted from Ella’s throat, Lucinda had slumped to the floor, her neck open, spilling crimson.

“No!” Ella wailed. Her knees almost gave way; cold dread filled every fibre of her body, her heart ripping open as Lucinda’s white nightgown turned red, her eyes and mouth wide open in a silent scream, her neck open. Ella stumbled back, nausea making her head spin as her world crashed all around her. “Lu… no…”

“This is what happens to traitors!” Captain Sackle stepped over Lucinda’s twitching body and the pool of red running across the floorboards.

Ella backed away and hurtled down the stairs, adrenaline pounding through every vein in her body. She reached the bottom and in her haste, knocked over the lamp; it smashed into glittering shards of glass, which scattered on the ground like stardust as the room was plunged into darkness.

The stairs rumbled with Caskhell and Sackle’s pursue; Ella snatched up the lute case and tore it open, nausea threatening to take over as she pulled the instrument from its case and held it aloft with trembling hands.

When the huge figure of the captain appeared, Ella swung. Wood splintered and burst against his jaw and he reeled in agony; Ella spun and made a break for the door, but Caskhell tackled her to the ground. Groaning, half-blinded by tears, Ella tried to shout, but the wind had been knocked out of her. She reached for the dagger at her hip and her fingers grazed the hilt. Caskhell pulled it from the sheath at her belt and threw it to the other side of the dark room.

“Get up!” growled Captain Sackle, hauling Ella to her feet. “I’ll make short work of this.”

The captain of the guard ignored the terrified wails of the villagers as horses fled for the gates, some ridden by Night Elves, some cantering with no rider, reins flapping behind them. The main gate had been closed, but the nearby fence lay in tatters, broken on the ground as if a large creature had trampled on it. Guards shot arrows at where Elves on horses jumped over the ruined fence; nearby, a small pony and its rider lay dead, the glassy eyes of a male Forest Elf staring, sightless, into the night sky.

Ella fought, but the captain’s grip was strong; someone tied her wrists behind her back with rope. “Let me go!” she growled, fear turning to blind hatred as she kicked at the captain’s armoured shins. Pain tore at her heart. Poor Lucinda…

A dog appeared in the darkness; barking and yapping, it snapped at Sackle’s legs as he pushed her forwards.
“Back, girl, back!” wheezed a weak voice.
“Out of the way, vermin!” the guardsman roared, shoving a frail vagabond out of the way.

“Skave!” Ella screamed, still struggling in her bonds. Skave restrained the mongrel, the very same dog Ella had cut free at the market, while avoiding Ella’s gaze.

“You should choose your friends more carefully,” the smug captain whispered in Ella’s ear. “This little friend of yours told us everything for a few nobels.”

Skave slunk into the shadows, watching with reproachful eyes as Ella was hauled away. His dog whined beside him as his sorrowful gaze confirmed her worst fears.

How much did they know? How many Elves had managed to escape before they realised the horses were not the target, but the distraction? Skave hadn’t known that… had he?

Numb with shock, Ella half-stumbled as she was roughly pushed along to the side streets and led along a dark alley. Where were they taking her? This wasn’t the way to the Jewel Mansion’s dungeons. With a jerking panic, as the clouds parted, beaming powerful silver light onto the ground, she realised that they were leading her up the hill towards the cemetery.

She shivered as they half-shoved her along, the rope biting into her wrists. Were Kerra and Gregor waiting for her by the river? Would they have the sense to get out of there before the guards found them, or would they wait? Would Gregor join the Elves, now? Ella gave a choked sob. If only I’d reached Lucinda sooner…

She barely noticed that they had reached one of the corner watchtowers behind the cemetery; the north-east tower was usually heavily guarded, but in the mayhem, the guards had joined the fight near the main gates. Captain Sackle led Ella up the grassy hill. Ella felt strange, detached, as though she had left her heart and half her brain in the house with her sister.

Hazy thoughts of Kerra, Lucinda, and Gregor swirled through her mind as she was led up some wooden steps on shaky legs. When her tear-filled eyes spotted the noose, she sprang up like a panicked deer.

“No! NO!” she kicked out, resisting and pushing against the floorboards with all her might. New strength seemed to flood through her muscles; she could not die, she would not die, not while she still breathed and while she still didn’t know whether Kerra and the Elves had escaped or not…

“Stay still, you stupid girl!” Sackle growled as Caskhell rushed to restrain her. His perfectly parted hair glinted in the moonlight, and Ella spat at him, trying to throw him off at his touch.

“You’d think I’d let you get away with embarrassing me like that?” he growled as she struggled against them. “In front of the whole marketplace?”

The sharp smack on her temple almost knocked Ella to the floorboards on which they were standing. Off-balance, made worse so by her tied hands, Ella tried to make a break for it and leap from the platform, but Sackle grabbed her around the waist. Caskhell punched her hard; his fist hit her jaw and her head whipped to the left, stars bursting in front of her eyes. Another smack hit her temple, and pain exploded near her eye; it swelled as she gasped in agony, and Caskhell cracked his knuckles in satisfaction. “Stupid bitch,” he snarled.

Ella groaned, barely staying on her feet as sharp pain ebbed through her jaw and her eye. Cursed cowards. The metallic taste of blood flowed on her tongue as her head rang, losing all strength to fight as Skave forced her onto the trapdoor, in front of a hanging noose.

The hill looked over the northeast wall, her only view through her burning eyes as Sackle gripped her, vice-like, by the wrists. Although it was only the three of them there, Sackle loudly declared the charges as though in front of an audience.

“Helping prisoners escape, putting the Mage Lord Krem and the good people of Veilig into danger, and consorting with the enemy! Unforgivable crimes! You don’t even deserve a trial, you filthy little traitor.”

Ella squinted, struggling with her injured eye, over the wall and to the hills, where the moonlight shone silver onto the wood ahead. Dim lanterns, bobbing like fireflies, were moving through the trees.

Despite the pain that flared like fire in her head, Ella’s heart lifted. The lights could only mean that the Elf girls had escaped, and Kerra was leading them. Desperation clung to her soul; they were leaving without her… but they were safe, now…

Nausea was building in her gut. Only an hour ago, everything had been so normal, even peaceful. Ella tore her gaze from the bobbing lights to look at the drifting grey clouds above, where stars winked in patches of clear sky. The moon, bright, white and beautiful, poured its silver light onto her face. The rope tightened around her neck.

Glancing down to the wood again, Ella watched as the lights grew fainter until they disappeared completely. Though her jaw ached, Ella smiled. They had escaped; they were free. And although Ella’s heart was filled with fear and pain, something told her it was going to be okay… she would be with Lucinda soon. And she would see her ma and pa again…

As Sackle stepped solemnly back, Ella hummed Hope’s Horizon between raspy, shallow breaths as her body grew tired and weak, the rope rough on her neck. As her weight shifted on the trapdoor below her feet, her heart pounded against her ribcage, filled with loss and dread, yet with a glimmer of hope. Kerra may think that she’d deserted her, but at least she and Gregor were safe. Lucinda was in pain no longer. It was done, it was over: the bard’s task was complete.